Category Archives: illustration

It has been a while since Yulia Brodskaya's talents have graced the site and in that time she has kept busy making even more stunning quilled masterpieces that jump off of the canvas. In this particular portrait series, the focus is on various types of women, all visibly unique and powerful in their own right. In the process of refining her quilling skill set, she has created a style of quilling that mimics that of broad paint strokes. This method is achieved by packing densely folded color blocks of paper into the contours of the face and body. Each paper sculpture, whether vibrant color blocks, abstract braiding, or playing with different colors to show different textures and shading, sets her apart from other quilling artists, making each bold piece a truly fine work of art. Be sure to check out the video below!

San Francisco-based artist Kanako Abe creates hand-cut, intricate paper art, that at first glance look like pen drawings. She started working with paper in 2012 when learning the Japanese art of Ise-katagami—a traditional stencil technique used for complex designs on Kimono fabric. Abe uses the same Japanese Ise-katagami cutting tools but on black paper, in addition to an X-Acto knife, a cutting mat, and—most importantly—incredible patience. The resulting hand-cut creations depict woodland animals and mystical forests that explore “everyday moments and thoughts.”

There are a fair share of beautiful miniature paper works featured throughout the site, all inspiring and unique in their own way, so upon seeing these detailed cut paper illustrations of birds up close, featuring NVillustration was a must. NVIllustration is a design studio based in India run by the talented duo Nayan Shrimali and Vaishali Chudasama. Their body of work is comprised of jewelry, dioramas and lately a dedicated series of miniature bird illustrations in cut paper and watercolor for a 30 day challenge.

Hula Estudio is a full service graphic design studio based in Spain. They were tasked in creating a package design that described the essence of Sargs IPA, and they did just that. Inspired by the aromas found in this fruity craft beer, they 'handcrafted' a vibrant botanical illustration incorporating the lush details of the jungle out of layered paper cutouts.

Pippa Dyrlaga is a paper cutting artist, whose work is often comprised of delicate works inspired by nature, birds and architecture around where she currently lives in Hebden Bridge, England. "My paper cut works are mostly cut from a single sheet of paper," she mentions in her artist statement, "They are first drawn out by hand on the reverse of the paper, and then hand cut using a scalpel, and can take hours to complete. The process is just as important to me as the finished product."

Anshuman Ghosh is a visual artist based in South Africa who creates quirky illustrations that revolve around his iPhone. He finds suitable inspiration from everyday occurrences, common observations and more importantly, things that he loves. Each cut paper illustration casts the illusion that his phone is something that it is not, using brightly colored drawings that have been cut up and layered into these fun and newly transformed scenarios. His vibrant ideas are both simple and clever, like two classics such as the Rubix Cube being sliced and transformed into a Tetris game or a paper being shredded into the iPhone only leaving the strips on screen. All in all his talents definitely will leave a smile on your face.

Barcelona based illustrator José Antonio Roda transforms paper into cutouts that look like Cubist inspired line drawings. His hand cut portraits have a Picasso-esque familiarity like one of his famous sketches, with wonderful use of positive and negative shapes. Each illustration is produced from a single sheet of paper, where his careful incisions have an effortless feel to them. Some have even been juxtaposed against bright circles or rectangles in the background, making for a seamless color block. Shape and design are a huge part of cut paper illustration, and a rather evident appeal throughout José’s work where he shows clear dedication to detail and his craft.

Born in Shanxi, Fu Xiaotong has achieved wide acclaim for her remarkable works on thick sheets of hand-made Xuan that has been paper perforated with a needle until images of subjects such as mountain ranges and powerful waves emerge from the accumulation of holes. Her latest paper works feature cellular structures and even a skull emerges from hundreds of thousands of pinpricks. Her works can be found on display at Chambers Fine Art through June 17, 2017.

Hayley Morris of Shape & Shadow has created a mesmerizing music video for Austin based band Explosions in the Sky using her trademark stop-motion animation style incorporated with thousands of paper shapes and geometric sculptures. To create these hypnotizing patterns and folds along side the single ‘The Ecstatics,’ Morris uses delicate cut-outs made of paper, moving each unique piece by hand. The latticed shapes and origami sculptures are then brought to life through projection mapping and marine colors.

It's been a while since we have posted about our friends over at Shotopop, and since I'm a huge cartoon fan I couldn't resist adding this layered gem to the site. The London and New York based crew was invited by their friends over at WIZZ Design to create a plagiarized artwork for their exhibition, PLAGIAT.

They decided to go with a medium they have used previously, paper. Since they also shared the same affinity for cartoons, they created an amazing mashup of all of their favorites as a layered paper relief. They've got the Power Puff Girls, Fin and Jake from Adventure Time, and Aku from Samurai Jack just to name a few. And of course this colorful masterpiece is bursting to the brim with energy.